Haliey Welch, better known as the “Hawk Tuah Girl,” has found herself in serious legal trouble after being added to a federal class action lawsuit related to a cryptocurrency scheme. In a surprising twist, the law firm she cooperated with has now turned against her, using the information she provided to include her as a defendant in the $10 million case.
The lawsuit centers around the catastrophic launch of a Solana-based memecoin that Welch promoted to her millions of followers. According to court filings, Welch’s company, 16 Minutes LLC, signed a meme token creation and monetization agreement with Meme Labs nearly five months before the token launched.
The contract allegedly paid Welch $125,000 upfront, with an additional $200,000 upon meeting promotional milestones, plus a 50% lifetime profit share tied to trading activity.
The Hawk token was marketed as a “transformational cultural token” that would integrate with Welch’s podcast to offer subscription-style benefits. However, the lawsuit claims the token lacked any technical components to deliver on these promises.
Within 15 minutes of launch, the token soared to a market capitalization of $490 million before immediately collapsing 93% in value. The suit alleges this wasn’t due to mismanagement but was intentionally designed to crash, allowing insiders to cash out during the initial frenzy.
What makes this case particularly remarkable is how Welch essentially incriminated herself. Initially excluded from the lawsuit, she publicly announced she was “fully cooperating” with Berwick Law to investigate her business partners and “uncover the truth.” She provided extensive information about her involvement, seemingly believing this cooperation would protect her from legal consequences.
However, Welch failed to secure any contractual immunity before handing over damaging evidence. Now, Berwick Law has amended the complaint to include Welch, her manager Johnny Forester, and 16 Minutes LLC as defendants. The filing states that these payments “transformed Welch from a passive celebrity into a critical component of a coordinated marketing funnel designed to draw in retail purchasers who trusted her.”
The lawsuit further alleges that the wallets involved in the Hawk token scheme were connected to multiple other cryptocurrency scams, including tokens promoted by Argentine President Javier Milei and even tied to First Lady Melania Trump’s memecoin. Blockchain forensics revealed identical timing patterns, funding flows, and extraction methods across these schemes.
Meanwhile, Welch’s career has completely collapsed. Her once-popular podcast has failed, and recent livestreams have attracted as few as nine viewers—a dramatic fall from the millions she once commanded. Her recent videos are performing at 0% of their usual numbers, effectively ending her content creation career.
By providing evidence without immunity, Welch may have sealed her own fate in what could become one of the most expensive mistakes of her brief time in the spotlight.